Another MIS Blogger

Monthly Archives: April 2012

I have wrote many topics about the Association for Information Systems (AIS), Temple University Student chapter and showed the benefits of becoming a member. You should know what is AIS and the opportunity to meet a variety of AIS great speakers. AIS also has many great social opportunities such as rock climbing and the IT Awards after party recently.

AIS now officially has its own website that was just launched: temple-ais.org. This website will allow everyone to access information such as news, weekly events, meeting information, and other important links. This is a great resource because students can learn about weekly speakers and the opportunities to come in to listen and network.

The website also displays the current officers and you can literally learn about them through the short articles they provide. AIS also offers IT services for the small firms and other organizations. This is a great chance for students to learn real-world experiences and explore their options through these services. If you want to become a member or purchase some merchandise items, you can do that on this website. If you have any questions, there is a contact button that will directly send the message to someone who can assist you.

AIS always keeps up to date technology by using Swoop Text to communicate with the members through text messages and now AIS uses Instagram. AIS keeps growing bigger and has more members, this means that students need to start to pay attention to their careers. I suggest you all visit the AIS new website for more useful information and I am sure you will like it.

Social media is becoming more important for employers nowadays. As you may know a couple weeks ago I wrote about what if employers ask for your Facebook password? Not even that, employers may want to know what is your Klout score is? Students from the social media class of Professor Steven L. Johnson may have been introduced to Klout already. Klout is a service that measures your influence on social media on a scale from 1 to 100. Klout scores are based on how active you are on those social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, and even Pinterest. It also takes into account things like retweets, discussions started, replies, likes, friends, followers, etc.

Sam Fiorella, who interviewed for a VP position in Marketing, was passed on because his Klout score was too low even though he has 15 years of experience and has worked for the big company such as AOL and Ford. Sam was confident about the interview and he thought he would get this position because his qualifications and experiences was more than what they requested. During the interview, he was about about his Klout score. Sam admitted to them that he did not know what Klout was and in the end, after discovering it was only a 34, Sam did not make the cut. It sounds a bit ridiculous but it happens in this world.

Imagine if recruiters want to know more about you, they just need to type your name on Google and your information will appear. Yes, there is the good, the bad, and the ugly of social media but if you use it in the right way, it can create a huge benefit for you. You will build up your reputation and advertise yourself without having to even interviewing yet.

Do you want to check your Klout score now? Go to Klout.com and create a new account. If you are unsure what to do, you can ask Professor Steven for more information by emailing him at steven@temple.edu

The Twelfth Annual IT Awards happened without a hitch last night. There was many people in attendance including undergraduate students, MIS alumnus, faculty, members, and guests. The MIS program was ranked apart of the top 20 in the nation for 2012 according to U.S. News. It was a proud moment for the MIS Department and showed that they were not only the best in teaching but also in research. The awards opened with the warm welcome from the Fox MIS Advisory Board Chair, Bruce Fadem, Dean M. Moshe Porat, and Associate Professor, Chair, and Executive Director, Munir Mandviwalla. Then everyone welcomed Michelle Dy-Reyes, AIS president of Temple University Chapter, who seemed be the favorite from all the students. As you may know, the AIS Temple Chapter was awarded the Outstanding Student Chapter in 2010 and 2011 which shows all the hard-work from its members.

The awards presentation included the Fox IT Leader, Innovator, and Distinguished Alumni awards. Those awards were given to Adrian R. Gardner from NASA, K. Venkatesh Prasad from Ford Motor, and Marc E. Snyder from KPMG respectively. The recipients made great speeches about the award, how meaningful it was for them, and the empowerment of technology that lead them to be where they are now. There were also awards for MIS students, MIS Researcher of the Year, Faculty Leadership, Teacher of the Year, Administrative Achievement, Administrative Leadership, IBIT Information Technology, and many more. All those awards work as a motivation for the MIS Department to work harder and encourage students to put in 110% every day.

This event was a great experience that I strongly encourage all Temple students to join it every year even if you are not a MIS major/minor. It is a great place to network and exchange information with each other and professionals. So mark the date for next year so that you don’t miss this event.

In the past, the technology industry was mainly comprised of men. However, now I am glad to say that more women are venturing into the IT field and more opportunities are being opened for them. Not only from that, women are creating technology groups to collaborate ideas and learn from each other. More and more women groups have formed recently and one of the popular groups that I want to mention is right here in our community. For Tech Week, there will be many technology events for women to celebrate technology with a focus on bringing more women on board.

One of the member of the group, Kate Krauss, was from San Francisco where there was a very low population of women in the tech scenes. She found that the community in Philadelphia is really different because it is not just focused on women but also about technology.

There will be a first ever Women in Tech Summit which will be on April 21st at Wharton, Philadelphia. This event will bring in female hackers, developers, designers, and executives to come together and connect. There are only 25% women in IT but this is expected to increase over time.

If you want to join the women tech groups, here are some popular in Philly such as Web Start Women, Girl Develop IT etc. All female students who are enrolled in IT or MIS major should not be intimidated by the male-dominated field because we can do as much as they do.

The majority of IT careers have a positive outlook nowadays even though the economy is still recovering from recession. However, that still does not mean IT professionals do not have to worry about their jobs because technology changes constantly. This requires them to always keep up to date on the latest news and happenings. I just read a great article, “Tech workers stress over skills gap” by Mary K. Pratt, that was posted on the computerworld.com talking about what hiring managers are looking for. To sum it up into one word: “Perfection”

Dean Haddock, manager of IT at StoryCorps, has been through many cycles of technology changes at his company. He encourages the IT professionals to keep up to date with technology and not just stick to the traditional ways. A vivid example Dean gives involves about understanding his company’s strategy and with the help of new technologies, like cloud computing , help to push them forward .

Hiring managers not only look for the basic skill sets, but also see if the candidates could adapt to new technologies and have the ability to apply it to the business. Brian Gegan, Senior Vice President of Technology at Eyefinity said that people should not stay at their comfort zone when it comes to technology. As he noted, “It’s a real problem, because the skill sets that work today aren’t necessarily going to be applicable tomorrow.” Unfortunately this is very true, even for students graduating today.

For the students, you should take the initiative to learn new technologies as much as possible during college. Whether it on your own or through a classroom environment, you don’t want to master an old technology that no one uses. The more you know, the better valuable you are, and the easier it is to get a job. You should always be willing to take challenges and see it to the end.

Did you ever think what happens after you submit your resume? How it is viewed by the potential employer? We all have submitted our resume with the hope that recruiters will take the time to look at our resume and give us a call for an interview. A recent study from BusinessInsider noted that recruiters only look at your resume for an average of six seconds! Imagine what they can really see in only six seconds. This really surprised me and I start to wonder what we can do to make our resume attractive enough to someone who only looks at it for six seconds.

According to BusinessInsider:

In the short time that they spend with your resume, the study showed recruiters will look at your name, current title and company, current position start and end dates, previous title and company, previous position start and end dates, and education.

Therefore, you want to make your resume very concise and easy to read because if it is too messy they are just going to ignore that area. You also want to highlight the major areas. Temple offers many resume services with specialist that look at your resume and critique it. I think all of students should take advantage because a resume is the way for you to introduce yourself to recruiters. The job market is very competitive now and you have to take full advantage of what services you have access to. If you currently don’t have a resume, simply click on the resume template that FoxMIS has created. I think it helps a lot because the format is very neat and concise.

Here is the list of resume do’s and don’ts from Temple University Student Resources, you should read it and compare against your current resume.

What should you do when an employer is asking for your Facebook password as part of the interview process? Studies show that some employers nowadays will ask applicants for access to their Facebook password because it is used as a basic personality test, according to Reuters. Interviewers want to understand more about the candidate by logging in to his/her social media sites. Well is this ethical? It is still being debated right now because it is a huge issue involving a candidate’s personal life and privacy.

If employers ever ask or request you to give them the password to your Facebook, what will you do? That would be an awkward situation. It will seem like you are hiding something or it will look like you lost your confidence if you can’t answer that question. Tony Morrison wrote the article “What to Do When A Potential Employer Asks for Your Facebook Password” which was published on Mashable.com, he shared with us some tips if we ever find ourselves in that situation:

Be calm, show respect, and mention that you prefer LinkedIn better because it displays your professional connections which can bring benefit to the organization

You should evaluate carefully if the job is really worth it because most likely the employer will be watching you at work and now they want to evaluate your personal life

Take precaution with your personal social media site by preventing employers to search for your profile by creating a nickname or disabling public viewing

Social media is very powerful and employers may take advantage of it by looking at our Facebook profile, posts, or pictures so that they can evaluate our personality. However, this is more of an invasion of privacy. It is a controversial topic and it is very sensitive but I do believe that, as students, we should be careful of using social media because it does have it’s disadvantages for us. Let me know what you think and what you would do if you fall into this situation. Thanks for reading!

According to the U.S. News & World Report, Temple University’s Fox School Business is one of eight Business Schools on the rise nationally. Even better, our MBA program has the highest-ranking in the Greater Philadelphia and is one of the best graduate programs in 2013. The Management Information Systems (MIS) program was ranked No. 22 according to the peer reviews and No. 18 overall in the nation. Currently, the MIS Department offers the special programs for post-graduates including MBA and a new Master of Science in Information Technology Auditing and Cyber-Security (ITACS). ITACS program helps students learn how to be aware about cyber security. This program will help students pass the Certified Information Systems Auditor exam and will open more career opportunities. If you are interested in this program, click here for more information or send the email to: Richard.Flanagan@Temple.edu

Fox School is constantly ranked as one of the best business schools in the Greater Philadelphia and the nation. We, as students, have the great opportunity to be apart of it. Everyone should be proud to know that Fox’s “stock” is getting better and being apart of this program will open many career paths. Especially in MIS, where more and more students are choosing it as a major or minor. After you graduate, you should really consider coming back to Temple for your MBA or any other graduate degree.

Most parents nowadays encourage their children to go to college and obtain a degree with the hope that they will land a great high-paying job. They want their children to have a better quality of life and be able to succeed as working adults. However, it is getting tougher for the “millennial generation” since the job market is now very competitive and slowly recovering from it’s latest recession. As a result, many students accumulate a big debt from 4+ years of loans and the high-paying job is not there. According to Alfred Lubrano, who wrote the article “Diminishing Returns” on Philly.com, unemployment rates was 19.4% for 20-24 year olds in 2010, meanwhile the U.S. as a whole was at 8.3% unemployment. Believe it or not, Mr. Lubrano said that there are about 80,000 bartenders in America with a Bachelor’s degree.

In the article, he mentioned about Alyssa Snavely who graduated from Temple with a psychology degree. She used to be a medical-case worker but is now unemployed and struggling to find another job. Alyssa worries that she may never get another job in her profession. Sadly, colleges spend a lot of money for maintaining and building new facilities and then will have to raise tuition rates. This article points out the vivid facts that I think all students should read and understand the current job market situation.

However, students should not be disappointed about this fact because you can change it. You already have the opportunity to go to college, just make sure to take all the advantage of it. The current situation makes it tough to find a job after college, it means you have to work harder to put yourself in an advantageous position. There are a lot of benefits from college and you just need to grasp it. Organizations like AIS, are huge benefits for MIS students. You get to meet companies and build networks. You have to start now and go at it with 110%. Yes, tuition is high but if you can use what you learn from school and apply it to the workplace, you will have a very bright future. Sometimes we don’t try hard and expect it to just happen but of course this is impossible.